Rise of the Tomb Raider Wins WGA Award for Writing

At this year’s Writers Guild Awards, Crystal Dynamics’ and Square Enix’s Rise of the Tomb Raider wins the “Outstanding Achievement in Video Game Writing” award.

Rise of the Tomb Raider was up against some stiff competition for the “Outstanding Achievement in Video Game Writing” trophy at the 2016 Writers Guild Awards, but it managed to edge out other high-quality narrative-driven titles such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and Pillars of Eternity for the honor. The team behind the action-adventure title who brought the story to life and took home the award were the lead narrative designer John Stafford, the narrative designer Cameron Suey, the lead writer Rhianna Pratchett, and the additionally credited writer Philip Gelatt.

For those unaware, Rise of the Tomb Raider as well as the other nominated games had their writing merits judged by a panel from the Video Games Writers Caucus, in addition to a mix of Writer’s Guild members in the medium’s field, which helped promote impartiality. That said, Rise of the Tomb Raider‘s success at the 2016 Writers Guild Awards puts it in good company, as last year’s winner in the category was Neil Druckmann for Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us: Left Behind.

Few would argue that Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn’t deserve the award, especially considering that the majority of its reviews were positive when it released last year. However, there will certainly be some fans who believe one of the other competitors should have taken the honor, for when it comes to ceremonies like these there’s always contention.

Considering this victory for Rise of the Tomb Raider, it lends further credence to the likelihood of another sequel for the series being in the pipeline. After all, Square Enix already teased as much months before RotTR came out by claiming that making the game an Xbox timed-exclusive title was best for the “trilogy”. However, before that can happen, developers still need to deliver on its promise to release a PS4 version during the 2016 holiday.

At any rate, Rise of the Tomb Raider definitely was a step up from the initial reboot of Tomb Raider in almost every respect imaginable. As it happens, many fans consider it to be one of the top 10 best video games of 2015. With that in mind, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix can hopefully work its magic once again by building an even stronger story around Lara Croft the next time around.

What do you think about Rise of the Tomb Raider winning the “Outstanding Achievement in Video Game Writing” award at the 2016 Writers Guild Awards? Do you believe one of the other nominees should have won? If so, which one and why? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is out now and is available for PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, with a PlayStation 4 release planned for later this year.